Ship retarding system

ABSTRACT

This is a retarding system for a ship consisting of a forward facing mouth leading by way of a duct containing a pump to a discharge director for discharging the water entering the mouth in a selected approximately horizontal direction, the discharge director being preferably in a flat bottom part of the hull. The duct can be closed for when the retarding action is not needed.

United States Patent 1 91 Slade 1451' Apr. 2, 1974 SHIP RETARDING SYSTEM 3,687,374 8/1972 Nash 239/265.35

' l2 R 1 1 Inventor: George Slade, Isle of Wight, 322335 311323 221; a... 1.3 15714 England 3,611,972 10/1971 Duport 114/151 [73] Assignee: J. Samuel White & Company i Hampshre England Primary ExaminerDuane A. Reger [22] Filed: May 10, 1972 Assistant ExaminerD. C. Butler Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Dressler, Goldsmith, Clem- [21] Appl' 2S21l0 ent & Gordon, Ltd.

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 13, 197i Great Britain l4635/7l 57 ABSTRACT [52] CL 4/145 R, 1 14/1511 1 /12 R This is a retarding system for a ship consisting ofa for- [51] Int. Cl B63h /46 ward facing mouth leading by w f a duct i [58] Fleld of Search 1 14/145 R, 144 R, 150, ing a pump to a discharge director f discharging the 114/151; 115/12 141 18 11; 60/221 water entering the mouth in a selected approximately 2221 232; 239/265- horizontal direction, the discharge director beingpreferably in a flat bottom part of the hull. The duct can [56] References cued be closed for when the retarding action is not needed.

UNITED STATES PATENTS 3,643,438 2/1972 Barsby /221 5 Claims, 5 Drawing Figures PATENTEDAPR 2 1914 3800.731

SHEET u [1F 4 SHIP RETARDING SYSTEM This invention relates to a ship retarding system and one object is to provide mechanism for assisting in the slowing down of a large oil tanker or other vessel at sea while at the same time being capable of assisting manoeuvring of the vessel in port.

There is at present a serious problem in enabling very large vessels to be slowed down if an obstruction is sighted ahead and also such vessels require a large number of tugs for manoeuvring in port because of the difficulties in manoeuvring the large masses merely by use of equipment on the ship.

According to the present invention a ship retarding system includes means defining a forward facing mouth for receiving water into a duct and a discharge director leading from the duct and capable of directing discharge of the water forwardly.

The duct may include an engine driven pump for increasing the velocity of flow of the water and the discharge director may be adjustable, preferably continuously, so that thedischarg e can be in any selected direction whereby if it is not required merely to slow the vessel down butalso to shift the bow to one side or the other, this is possible with an easy adjustment.

The discharge is conveniently through the bottom of the hull and for this purpose the director may be approximately flush with a flat portion of the bottom of the hull.

Since the mouths face forward and the discharge may be led to an opening in a flat hull bottom, a convenient shape of duct is one including an approximately horizontal passage containing the pump joined to an approximately vertical passage leading to the discharge director. With this arrangement, in one convenient disposition of parts a shaft for driving the pump and a shaft for adjusting the director cross one another, being slightly laterally spaced from one another in the duct, and each leads beyond the duct wall to a motor or engine for turning it.

A preferred form of the mouth-defining means comprises two ducts one at each side of the bow which are normally in a 'faired-in position in the sides of the bow but can be projected one to port and one to starboard when the retarding action is needed.

The inventionmay be carried into practice in various ways and one embodiment will be briefly described by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a side elevation through the lower part of the bows of a hull embodying the invention;

FIG. 2 is a plan view of the bow of FIG. 1;

FIG. 3 is a front view of the same bow showing alternative mouths at port and starboard, and

FIGS. 4 and 5 are views corresponding to FIGS. 1 and 2 showing a modification.

The hull 11 is shown as having the rather bulbous forward protrusion 12 below the waterline that is becoming common in larger tankers and within this bulbous portion 12 is mounted a duct 13 comprising a generally horizontal portion 14 containing a pump 15 driven through a shaft 16 and a gearbox 17 by an engine 18 and a rearwardly and downwardly curved portion 21 leading from the horizontal portion 14 to a discharge director 22 opening into a circular hole 23 in the flat bottom of the hull 11.,

The director 22 comprises a rotatable member having curved guide vanes 24 so that by turning a vertical shaft 25 by steering gear 26 the discharge can be directed in any direction in a plane parallel with the plane of FIG. 2, for example'as shown at 27 or 28 in FIG. 1 which shows that the discharge is in fact slightly down ward of the theoretical horizontal direction.

Inlet to the duct 13 is through two forwardly facing mouths 31 defined by movable ducts 32. Each duct 32 can be turned about a vertical axis 33 by a hydraulic ram 34 to be either in an inboard position 35 in which it is faired into the side of the hull, or in a projecting, or outboard, position 36 in which it is substantially forwardly directed so that there will be a natural tendency for water to enter the mouth as the ship moves ahead.

This action is assisted by the pump 15 and if the director 22 is adjusted to give the discharge shown at 27 in FIG. 1 there will be a substantial retarding force applied to the hull partly derived from the forward movement of the vessel and partly fromthe power of the engine 18.

Moreover, steering can be assisted, whether the vessel is moving or is stationary, by directing the discharge in any other of the directions in the plane of FIG. 2.

The mouths 31 are protected by grills which may consist of vertical, spaced bars 38 shown at the left in FIG. 3 or horizontal, spaced bars 39 shown at the right inFIG. 3. The bars 38 can be kept scraped clean of debris by rotating aginst the edge 41 of the hull indicated in FIG. 2 but it is preferred that the bars 39 are used because these can be scraped clean every time the mouth closes by projections at 42 corresponding to the spaces between bars 39.

It will be noticed from FIG. 1 that the two shafts 16 and 25 cross one another at the right angle bend of the duct 13 before leading through seals in the duct casing to their respective drive means. The shafts are slightly spaced laterally from one another as indicated best in FIG. 2 and this has been found to provide a particularly convenient drive arrangement.

FIGS. 4 and 5 show how in a modification, water can enter the duct 13 through a front opening 45 protected by a grid, instead of through the mouths 31.

The flow of water can be controlled by a semibalanced butterfly-type inlet valve 46 which can be turned about a vertical axis 47 by a hydraulic ram 48 and a crank 49, or possibly by anelectric drive. There may also be an emergency hand operated gear for the valve.

What I claim as my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is:

l. A ship retarding system including: means defining a forward facing mouth for receiving water; a discharge director; a duct leading from the mouth to the discharge director; and an engine driven pump in the duct for increasing the velocity of flow of the water to the discharge director, the discharge director being mounted flush with a flat portion of the bottom of the hull and being mounted for continuous adjustment about a vertical axis so that the discharge therethrough can be in a direction having a horizontal component selected from a range including the forward direction and side directions.

2. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the mouth defining means comprises two ducts one at each side of the bow of the ship and means for moving each duct joined to a vertical passage leading to the discharge director.

5. A system as claimed in claim 4 in which a shaft for driving the pump and a shaft for adjusting the director cross one another, being laterally spaced from one another in the duct, and in which each shaft leads beyond the duct wall to means for turning it. 

1. A ship retarding system including: means defining a forward facing mouth for receiving water; a discharge director; a duct leading from the mouth to the discharge director; and an engine driven pump in the duct for increasing the velocity of flow of the water to the discharge director, the discharge director being mounted flush with a flat portion of the bottom of the hull and being mounted for continuous adjustment about a vertical axis so that the discharge therethrough can be in a direction having a horizontal component selected from a range including the forward direction and side directions.
 2. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the mouth defining means comprises two ducts one at each side of the bow of the ship and means for moving each duct from a faired-in position in the sides of the bow to a projected position, thereby to enable water to freely flow into said ducts.
 3. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the mouth-defining means comprises an opening in a forward facing portion of the bow and including a valve allowing the duct to be open or closed.
 4. A system as claimed in claim 1 in which the duct comprises a horizontaL passage containing the pump joined to a vertical passage leading to the discharge director.
 5. A system as claimed in claim 4 in which a shaft for driving the pump and a shaft for adjusting the director cross one another, being laterally spaced from one another in the duct, and in which each shaft leads beyond the duct wall to means for turning it. 